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Young's Town

Young's Town is a Philippine canned sardine brand made by Maunlad Canning Corporation, whose lineage traces to a 1968 Japan-import business and which now operates a factory in Zamboanga City alongside Metro Manila facilities.

At a glance

Notable facts

• The Young's Town brand's roots go back to 1968, when Earldon Enterprises began importing sardines from Japan under the Young's Town name.
• The business evolved through Lapaz Sales Center, then Fishwealth Canning Corporation, which built a Malabon canning factory in 1988, before becoming Maunlad Canning Corporation, which added a Zamboanga City plant in 2007.
• Maunlad Canning Corporation describes itself as 'a family-owned corporation primarily engaged in manufacturing of canned goods (sardines, mackerel and corned beef).'
• Young's Town won an award at an international competition in Spain, prompting a Philippine Senate resolution (Senate Resolution 126) commending the company.
• The brand lists multiple other awards on its site, including a 2017 Global Award for Marketing and Business Excellence, 2017 and 2016 International Food & Beverages Quality Awards, and National Product Quality Excellence Awards in 2005 and 2012-2013.
• Company contact address listed is 631 Elcano St., Binondo, Manila, indicating continued Metro Manila corporate presence alongside the Zamboanga factory.

Origin

Young's Town traces back to 1968, when a Manila trading outfit called Earldon Enterprises began importing sardines from Japan under the Young's Town name. Over the following two decades the business changed hands and names — becoming Lapaz Sales Center, then Fishwealth Canning Corporation, which built its own canning plant in Malabon in 1988 — before settling into its current form as Maunlad Canning Corporation, a family-owned Philippine cannery.

Maunlad added a fourth factory in Zamboanga City in 2007, extending the brand's manufacturing footprint from Metro Manila (Malabon and Navotas) down into Mindanao's sardine belt, close to the Zamboanga and Sulu Sea fishing grounds that supply much of the country's canned sardine industry.

The brand has leaned into quality-award marketing more than most Philippine sardine houses, listing a string of domestic recognitions plus an award from a Spain-based trade organization that was notable enough to prompt a Philippine Senate resolution commending the company. Its product range is also unusually broad for the category, spanning everyday tomato-sauce sardines in 155g and 425g cans alongside Spanish-style oil-packed and smoked variants in 220g tins.

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